• by Les Luchter , 3 hours ago

Nearly four decades since U.S. men first used Viagra in 1998, women have obtained equal rights.

Dare to Play Sildenafil Cream, a prescription product using Viagra’s active ingredient, has launched to females for preordering in 10 states, including Connecticut, Florida and New Jersey.

It’s the first product from Daré Bioscience, which asks women in those states to talk with their current healthcare providers to obtain a prescription, which can then be preordered online, with shipping within 45 days, By Jan. 9, Dare says, it will also offer its own telehealth consultations,  with availability in all 50 states expected early in the year.

The price? “About $10 per sexual experience,” Daré says on its website, “less than your favorite coffee run, way more satisfying.”

Daré estimates that 20 million women in the U.S. “experience challenges related to genital arousal,” so the potential audience for Dare to Play is huge.

But consumer awareness is the marketing challenge.

This past summer, Daré teamed with women’s health app Rosy Wellness for a prelaunch consumer awareness campaign designed to combat misinformation on physical arousal, with such content as a collection of education modules and a “Quickie” short-form video. Both came from influencer Dr. Sameena Rahman, aka GynoGirl.

That campaign came to an abrubt end when seven-year-old Rosy, which claimed a reach of over 250,000 women, shut down on Nov. 20.

During Daré’s Q3 earnings call exactly a week earlier, though, President-CEO Sabrina Martucci Johnson talked about other awareness efforts in response to a question from Brookline Capital analyst Kemp Dolliver: “One thing that is really helpful in the near term is online advertising opportunities like Facebook and Instagram, and other social media tools like podcasts and appropriate sexual health influencers that have a large community of followers,” she said. “You will also start seeing Google Ads where relevant… more and more of that as the product becomes available, particularly as we go into the new year.”

Johnson related that Daré so far has been n most active in “prioritizing clinician awareness, making sure the healthcare providers that see these women are well aware of the product, know exactly how to prescribe it, and have all the tools they need.”

The company has been spreading its message “through targeted medical education initiatives, patient and clinician resources on www.daretoplaybio.com, and engagement programs that emphasize the clinical differentiation and unmet need addressed by this innovation,” she said. 

One example Johnson gave was a webinar titled "The Dare to Play Difference: The Sildenafil Cream that Raises the Bar," which she said featured former presidents of the International Society for the Study of Women's Health and the Menopause Society exploring “Dare to Play’s formulation science, clinical evidence showing improved genital blood flow and arousal outcomes, and critical clinician insights on why Dare to Play cream will set new standards in women's sexual arousal healthcare.”

Daré isn't a one-trick-pony either. It plans to follow the launch of Dare to Play in 2026 with Dare to Restore, two non-prescription vaginal probiotic products, and then a prescription product called Dare to Reclaim in early 2027. The latter, Johnson said, is a combination estradiol and progesterone intravaginal ring for women experiencing perimenopause and menopause.